AllThingsD: What If BlackBerry’s Patents Aren’t So Valuable After All?

BlackBerry’s patent portfolio is believed by some to be among the company’s most valuable assets. But what if it’s not? What if its worth to a potential BlackBerry suitor is undermined by preexisting cross-licensing agreements?

That may prove to be the case, according to a new theory put forth by Pacific Crest analyst James Faucette. A recent analysis has put the value of BlackBerry’s patents at somewhere between $2 billion and $5 billion, depending on whether they’re bought by a lone acquirer or purchased by a consortium of companies in some sort of cross-licensing deal. But, as Faucette notes, it’s entirely possible that some of the value of BlackBerry’s patent portfolio has been eroded over the years by the licensing deals it has inked in the course of normal business.

“[BlackBerry] clearly has a large patent portfolio, but we suspect that much of that portfolio has already been cross-licensed to other wireless companies,” Faucette theorizes. “If that is indeed the case, most traditional wireless players may already have complete (or nearly complete) access to the company’s IP.”

That doesn’t mean that the cross-licensed IP in question isn’t valuable — it is. But its usefulness might be more limited to certain buyers looking to more aggressively monetize them. And that could undercut their dollar value.

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